Now You See Me magic tricks explained

The Paris Bank Heist was the first heist disguised as a magic trick the Horsemen pulled off. It involved sending a member of the public via a special gateway to Paris to rob a bank and bring back the money to prove the trick was real. The magical debunker character in the movie, Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) did a really good job explaining how the trick was performed.

There is a real basis for the “Bank Heist” trick that has been around for a long time called “Portal“, made famous by David Copperfield. As the name suggests, the trick involves sending a person from the audience to a distant location like the beach through a magic portal (shown via video recording) before bringing them back onto the stage. .

Of course, given the closely guarded nature of real-world magic, there’s no way to confirm exactly how Copperfield pulled off his trick. But over the years, there have been theories.

It is generally accepted that the chosen audience members are part of the trick, rather than random spectators. “Plants”, if you will. This would allow the video to be pre-recorded, which then makes the “trick” much easier to “disappear” and “reappear” a person from the scene “portal”.